High winds, huge waves as Brian drops ‘weather bomb’ on Britain
STORM Brian is set to dump a “weather bomb” on the UK today with warnings of 70mph gales and massive waves.
The area of low pressure is expected to bring high winds from the early hours this morning.
It comes less than a week since the UK and Ireland were lashed by exhurricane Ophelia, which led to the deaths of three people.
Brian’s predicted path will first hit between midnight and 6am today.
The severe “yellow” weather warning issued by the Met Office is in place from 4am until midnight.
Met Office meterologist Aidan McGivern said: “Brian will be a welldeveloped autumn depression by the time it reaches the UK. In the yellow area we are expecting gusts to be widely in excess of 50mph.
“They will arrive in Wales early Saturday morning. They coincide with high tides, giving the potential for dangerous waves.”
In a weather bomb, also known as an explosive cyclogenesis, a jet stream of strong winds high up in the atmosphere interacts with the low pressure system. The jet stream removes air from the low pressure system, reducing its weight and causing the pressure to fall.
As the pressure drops, air is sucked in from the surrounding area, which means the low pressure system spins faster and faster.
On its website, the weather service says: “The resulting winds peak over a period of a few hours and can be strong enough to bring down trees and cause structural damage.”
The Met Office has issued a yellow warning, which means winds of up to 70mph in exposed coastal areas and up to 50mph further in land are possible.
It was announced on Thursday that some weekend events would be cancelled in view of the expected bad weather.
All Saturday morning football games on council pitches in Cardiff have been called off and the Ynysymaengwyn ghost walk and fright night in Snowdonia has been cancelled.
The ParkRun in Newport has also been cancelled. A statement on Facebook said: “Looking at the weather forecast for tomorrow and the forecast for high winds it is necessary to cancel ParkRun tomorrow as a precaution on health and safety grounds. We will return again as normal for our Halloween fancy dress theme on October 28.”
Train passengers also face some disruption with Arriva Trains Wales and Network Rail putting emergency speed restrictions in place “across most of the routes across Wales and the borders”.
“This will result in significant changes to most Arriva Trains Wales services for the majority of the weekend,” an Arriva spokesman said, advising passengers to check ahead before travelling.
The predicted high winds this morning coincide with high tides around the coast of Wales.
High tide in Cardiff is due at around 8.46am today, while at Milford Haven it is around 7.29am, at New Quay it will be around 9.19am, and at Llandudno it is 6.42am.
Natural Resources Wales (NRW) is urging people to be alert to the dangers around the coast.
Emergency response workers from NRW will also be out at certain areas checking that flood defences are in good working order.
Richard Hancox, from NRW, said: “We’ll be keeping a close eye on the tides and the latest forecasts from the Met Office over the next few days and if we need to issue flood alerts or warnings we will.
“We have already been speaking with our partners from the emergency services and the local authorities so they can also put their plans into action.
“As always our advice is to stay away from the coastline, piers and promenades during this time as large waves and stormy conditions could make them very dangerous places to be.”
Met Office chief forecaster Frank Saunders said: “A very deep area of low pressure is expected to bring strong winds to southern areas early this morning.
“During the morning and early afternoon these winds will transfer east and slowly change direction as they will become westerly and eventually northwesterly toward the end of the warning period.
“Gusts exceeding 50 mph are expected widely within the warning area with gusts of around 70 mph along exposed coastal areas.
“These are expected to coincide with high tides, leading to locally dangerous conditions.”
The wet and windy weather will continue into next week after Storm Brian moves into the North Sea tomorrow.
There will be a brief lull from the rain but it will feel cooler as the wind shifts to the north-west for a time tomorrow.
But showers are predicted to soon return for many areas with the most persistent rain in the south.